The Alzheimer’s Study Group’s Recommendations Five Years Later: Planning Has Advanced, But Agenda Remains Unfinished

Five years ago the Alzheimer’s Study Group released its assessment and recommendations in a final report to the 111th Congress. Sobered by the burden of Alzheimer’s and the anticipated trajectory of the disease, the Alzheimer’s Study Group recommended the development of a rigorous research plan to be fully funded by Congress. Congress acted on the first of these recommendations by passing the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, signed into law in 2011. The Department of Health and Human Services, in turn, released the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease in 2012. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) then followed in 2013 with a specific research program to achieve the national plan’s goal to “prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025.” With one of the Alzheimer’s Study Group’s recommendations fulfilled, the critical remaining questions are whether the NIH’s Alzheimer’s research program will be adequately funded and continue to be effectively executed so as to meet the 2025 goal.